iPhone a Growing Target of Crypto-Mining Attacks

Apple has increasingly been the target of crypto-mining attacks, and according to Check Point, iPhone attacks increased by nearly 400% over the last two weeks in September.

In its most recently published Global Threat Index, Check Point researchers said they are continuing to investigate the reasons behind this sharp increase but reported that crypto-miners continued to be the most common malware in September 2018. Coinhive continued to hold the number-one position, which it has occupied since December 2017.

While Coinhive currently impacts 19% of global organizations, researchers also reported that the information-stealing Trojan Dorkbot held onto second place with a 7% global impact. The report also noted significant increase in Coinhive attacks against PCs. Attackers used the Coinhive mining malware to target iPhones, which aligned with a rise in attacks against users of the Safari browser, the primary browser used by Apple devices.

The mining malware that rivals Coinhive, known as Cryptoloot, ranked third place overall on the Threat Index, making it the second-most prevalent crypto-miner in the index. Differentiating itself from Coinhive, Cryptoloot requests a smaller revenue percentage from websites than its top competitor.

“Crypto-mining continues to be the dominant threat facing organizations globally,” Maya Horowitz, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point, said in a press release. “What is most interesting is the fourfold increase in attacks against iPhones and against devices using the Safari browser during the last two weeks of September. These attacks against Apple devices are not using new functionality, so we are continuing to investigate the possible reasons behind this development.”

“In the meantime, attacks such as these serve as a reminder that mobile devices are an often-overlooked element of an organization’s attack surface, so it’s critical that these devices are protected with a comprehensive threat prevention solution, to stop them being the weak point in corporate security defenses.”

Microsoft IIS WebDAV ScStoragePathFromUrl Buffer Overflow (CVE-2017-7269) was the top most exploited vulnerability for the seventh-consecutive month, with a reported global impact of 48% of organizations.